BRECON Carreg has strengthened its Welsh credentials by bringing its head office operations to Wales.

Until now, the mineral water has been extracted and bottled in Trap, near Llandeilo, but operations have been ultimately run from Hemel Hempstead.

Brecon Carreg is part of the Belgium-owned Spadel Group, and its products include the Spa range of mineral water, which has long been popular in London and the South East.

However, the success in recent years of Brecon Carreg has prompted the company to shut down its Hemel Hempstead office and move all operations to Trap.

Brecon Carreg now sells approximately three times as much as the Spa range. According to The Grocer, it is the 10th best-selling water in the UK

Marketing manager Gill Bullock said, "We decided to move our head office to Trap because we feel very strongly that West Wales is our home. Many other food and drink products can be produced anywhere but our Welsh natural mineral water can only be bottled at source and we are very proud of our water's purity and our heritage.

"Brecon Carreg is a small business that successfully takes on competition from much larger brands due to working as a very close team. It makes sense for us to be physically closer so that we can react even more quickly to the needs of the business."

However, the longer-term strategy of the company remains increasing sales beyond Wales. She added, "We are already the number-one selling Welsh water in the UK.

"Whilst a large proportion of our water is sold in Wales, we have good national distribution through a number of retailers and wholesalers and are making especially strong in-roads into Bristol, the South West, the Midlands and the North West. Greggs the Bakers is a recent account win with wide reaching geographical spread."

There will be three new jobs at the Trap site. The new company head office will be located in a detached house which is being renovated.

Brecon House will be the base for the general manager, the finance, administrative and customer services staff. The sales and marketing team will also have "hot desk" facilities.